Fiona Meldrum

Last updated
Fiona Meldrum
Born
Fiona C. Meldrum
Alma mater University of Cambridge (BA)
University of Bath (PhD)
Scientific career
Fields Crystallization
Calcium carbonate
Mineralization [1]
Institutions University of Leeds
Queen Mary, University of London
Australian National University
Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research
Syracuse University
Thesis Nanoscale synthesis in organised organic assemblies  (1992)
Website physicalsciences.leeds.ac.uk/staff/202/professor-fiona-meldrum

Fiona C. Meldrum is a British scientist who is a Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Leeds [1] where she works on bio-inspired materials and crystallisation processes. [2] She won the 2017 Royal Society of Chemistry Interdisciplinary Prize. [3]

Contents

Education

Meldrum studied the Natural Sciences Tripos at the University of Cambridge, graduating in 1989. [3] She joined the University of Bath for her postgraduate studies, working on bio-inspired systems where she completed her PhD on nanoscale synthesis in 1992. [4]

Career and research

Meldrum was appointed a postdoctoral research fellow at Syracuse University, where she worked on nanoparticle assembly with Janos Fendler. [5] Whilst there, she contributed to the book Biomimetic Materials Chemistry. [6]

Meldrum was a Humboldt Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, working on crystallisation using surface plasmon spectroscopy with Wolfgang Knoll. [7] She explored chemical deposition of PbS on gold using self-assembled monolayers. [8] [9] Following this position, she worked at the Australian National University on biomineralisation. [10]

Meldrum joined Queen Mary University of London as a lecturer in 1998. [10] She moved to the University of Bristol in 2003, where she established new techniques to control crystal morphologies. [11] In 2009 Meldrum was appointed as a Professor at the University of Leeds. [7]

Meldrum was awarded an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Fellowship in 2010. [12] Her fellowship considers confined crystallisation in biological systems. [12] She studied the crystallisation of calcium carbonate and calcium phosphate and their behaviour in confined systems. [12] She demonstrated that confinement slows crystallisation, stabilising metaphases. [13] Confined crystallisation can be used to control the polycrystalline structure of crystals. Supported by the Leverhulme Trust, Meldrum showed that even nanoscale confinement can template crystallisation. [14] [15] Meldrum looks to use biology to guide crystal growth, demonstrating precipitation with mould and via an amorphous precursor phase. [7] [16] [17] She also looked how water-soluble block copolymers can influence the crystallisation of barium sulfate and calcium carbonate. [18]

Meldrum's work uses nature as an inspiration for materials design. [19] [20] She focuses on biominerals such as bones, teeth and shells. [19] She monitors the amorphous and precursor phases of biological crystal formation. [21] Meldrum uses nanoparticles as additives in crystal growth, using the particle surface chemistry to tune particle occlusion. Amongst several organic additives, Meldrum has incorporated amino acids into calcite. [22] The choice of additive is guided by genetic algorithms, resulting in the production of crystals with desired properties. [23] [24] She has evaluated how the surface topography impacts ice crystallisation, showing acute geometries give rise to a confined crystalline, which is followed by the formation of a bulk phase. [25]

The Meldrum group develop microfluidic devices to monitor crystallisation processes. [21] Crystallisation is usually difficult to monitor, as precipitation occurs very rapidly and is severely impacted by impurities. Microfluidic devices offer more control of the crystallisation rate, providing reproducible conditions for crystal growth and the potential to analyse the growth in situ. [21] Meldrum developed a Crystal Hotel to study crystallisation in a variety of environments and equilibrium conditions. [21] Meldrum has developed a range of experimental techniques; including Bragg coherent diffraction imaging, Brewster angle microscopy, liquid-cell Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Infrared spectroscopy. [26] [27]

Awards and honours

Meldrum was appointed lead editor of the Materials Research Society (MRS) Bulletin in 2016. [28] In 2017, she was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Interdisciplinary Prize. [3] She was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) advanced grant in 2018. [29]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calcium carbonate</span> Chemical compound

Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula CaCO3. It is a common substance found in rocks as the minerals calcite and aragonite, most notably in chalk and limestone, eggshells, gastropod shells, shellfish skeletons and pearls. Materials containing much calcium carbonate or resembling it are described as calcareous. Calcium carbonate is the active ingredient in agricultural lime and is produced when calcium ions in hard water react with carbonate ions to form limescale. It has medical use as a calcium supplement or as an antacid, but excessive consumption can be hazardous and cause hypercalcemia and digestive issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sodium carbonate</span> Chemical compound

Sodium carbonate is the inorganic compound with the formula Na2CO3 and its various hydrates. All forms are white, odourless, water-soluble salts that yield alkaline solutions in water. Historically, it was extracted from the ashes of plants grown in sodium-rich soils, and because the ashes of these sodium-rich plants were noticeably different from ashes of wood, sodium carbonate became known as "soda ash". It is produced in large quantities from sodium chloride and limestone by the Solvay process, as well as by carbonating sodium hydroxide which is made using the Chlor-alkali process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nucleation</span> Initial step in the phase transition or molecular self-assembly of a substance

In thermodynamics, nucleation is the first step in the formation of either a new thermodynamic phase or structure via self-assembly or self-organization within a substance or mixture. Nucleation is typically defined to be the process that determines how long an observer has to wait before the new phase or self-organized structure appears. For example, if a volume of water is cooled below 0 °C, it will tend to freeze into ice, but volumes of water cooled only a few degrees below 0 °C often stay completely free of ice for long periods (supercooling). At these conditions, nucleation of ice is either slow or does not occur at all. However, at lower temperatures nucleation is fast, and ice crystals appear after little or no delay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calcium acetate</span> Chemical compound

Calcium acetate is a chemical compound which is a calcium salt of acetic acid. It has the formula Ca(C2H3O2)2. Its standard name is calcium acetate, while calcium ethanoate is the systematic name. An older name is acetate of lime. The anhydrous form is very hygroscopic; therefore the monohydrate (Ca(CH3COO)2•H2O) is the common form.

In crystallography, polymorphism describes the phenomenon where a compound or element can crystallize into more than one crystal structure. The preceding definition has evolved over many years and is still under discussion today. Discussion of the defining characteristics of polymorphism involves distinguishing among types of transitions and structural changes occurring in polymorphism versus those in other phenomena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lithium hexafluorophosphate</span> Chemical compound

Lithium hexafluorophosphate is an inorganic compound with the formula LiPF6. It is a white crystalline powder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amorphous calcium carbonate</span>

Amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) is the amorphous and least stable polymorph of calcium carbonate. ACC is extremely unstable under normal conditions and is found naturally in taxa as wide-ranging as sea urchins, corals, mollusks, and foraminifera. It is usually found as a monohydrate, holding the chemical formula CaCO3·H2O; however, it can also exist in a dehydrated state, CaCO3. ACC has been known to science for over 100 years when a non-diffraction pattern of calcium carbonate was discovered by Sturcke Herman, exhibiting its poorly-ordered nature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plutonocene</span> Chemical compound

Plutonocene, Pu(C8H8)2, is an organoplutonium compound composed of a plutonium atom sandwiched between two cyclooctatetraenide (COT2-) rings. It is a dark red, very air-sensitive solid that is sparingly soluble in toluene and chlorocarbons. Plutonocene is a member of the actinocene family of metallocenes incorporating actinide elements in the +4 oxidation state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhenium disulfide</span> Chemical compound

Rhenium disulfide is an inorganic compound of rhenium and sulfur with the formula ReS2. It has a layered structure where atoms are strongly bonded within each layer. The layers are held together by weak Van der Waals bonds, and can be easily peeled off from the bulk material.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacqui Cole</span> Chemist

Jacqueline Manina Cole is the Head of the Molecular Engineering group in the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. Her research considers the design of functional materials for optoelectronic applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nickel oxyacid salts</span>

The Nickel oxyacid salts are a class of chemical compounds of nickel with an oxyacid. The compounds include a number of minerals and industrially important nickel compounds.

Nora Henriette de Leeuw is the inaugural executive dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at University of Leeds. Her research field is computational chemistry and investigates biomaterials, sustainable energy, and carbon capture and storage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aline Miller</span> Professor of Chemistry

Aline Fiona Miller is a Professor of Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Manchester. She specialises in the characterisation of polymer, biopolymer and peptides, using neutron and x-ray scattering, as well as the development of functionalised nanostructures for regenerative medicine and toxicology testing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lia Addadi</span> Israeli biochemist

Lia Addadi is a professor of structural biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She works on crystallisation in biology, including biomineralization, interactions with cells and crystallisation in cell membranes. She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 2017 for “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research”, and the American Philosophical Society (2020).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fluorocarbonate</span> Class of chemical compounds

A carbonate fluoride, fluoride carbonate, fluorocarbonate or fluocarbonate is a double salt containing both carbonate and fluoride. The salts are usually insoluble in water, and can have more than one kind of metal cation to make more complex compounds. Rare-earth fluorocarbonates are particularly important as ore minerals for the light rare-earth elements lanthanum, cerium and neodymium. Bastnäsite is the most important source of these elements. Other artificial compounds are under investigation as non-linear optical materials and for transparency in the ultraviolet, with effects over a dozen times greater than Potassium dideuterium phosphate.

Zoe Pikramenou is Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and Photophysics at the University of Birmingham, where she is the first female professor in the chemistry department.

Calcium (ion) batteries are energy storage and delivery technologies (i.e., electro–chemical energy storage) that employ calcium ions (cations), Ca2+, as the active charge carrier. Calcium (ion) batteries remain an active area of research, with studies and work persisting in the discovery and development of electrodes and electrolytes that enable stable, long-term battery operation.

Susan Perkin is a British chemist who is a Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Oxford. Her research considers the physics of liquids and soft matter. She was awarded the 2016 Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize and named the Soft Matter Lecturer of 2018. In 2015 Perkin was awarded a European Research Council starting grant and in 2020 she was awarded a European Research Council consolidator grant.

Emilie Ringe is an American chemist who is an assistant professor at the University of Cambridge. She was selected by Chemical & Engineering News as one of its "Talented Twelve" young scientists in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Eichhorn</span> British materials scientist

Stephen James Eichhorn FRSC FInstP FIMMM CEng is Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Bristol.

References

  1. 1 2 Fiona Meldrum publications indexed by Google Scholar OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  2. ↑ Fiona Meldrum publications from Europe PubMed Central
  3. 1 2 3 "RSC Interdisciplinary Prize 2017 Winner". rsc.org. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
  4. ↑ Meldrum, Fiona C. (1992). Nanoscale Synthesis in Organised Organic Assemblies. jisc.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Bath. OCLC   257967254. EThOS   uk.bl.ethos.305061.[ permanent dead link ]
  5. ↑ Fendler, Janos H.; Meldrum, Fiona C. (1995). "The Colloid Chemical Approach to Nanostructured Materials**". Advanced Materials. 7 (7): 607–632. Bibcode:1995AdM.....7..607F. doi:10.1002/adma.19950070703. ISSN   1521-4095.
  6. ↑ Mann, Stephen (1995-12-28). Biomimetic Materials Chemistry. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN   9780471185970.
  7. 1 2 3 Sciences, Faculty of Mathematics and Physical. "Professor Fiona Meldrum | School of Chemistry | University of Leeds". physicalsciences.leeds.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
  8. ↑ Knoll, Wolfgang; Flath, Johannes; Meldrum, Fiona C. (1999). "Chemical deposition of PbS on a series of ω-functionalised self-assembled monolayers". Journal of Materials Chemistry. 9 (3): 711–723. doi:10.1039/A807100D.
  9. ↑ Meldrum, Fiona C.; Flath, Johannes; Knoll, Wolfgang (1997-04-01). "Chemical Deposition of PbS on Self-Assembled Monolayers of 16-Mercaptohexadecanoic Acid". Langmuir. 13 (7): 2033–2049. doi:10.1021/la9608369. ISSN   0743-7463.
  10. 1 2 "Fiona Meldrum - EPSRC". epsrc.ukri.org. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
  11. ↑ Meldrum, Fiona C.; Cölfen, Helmut (2008-11-12). "Controlling Mineral Morphologies and Structures in Biological and Synthetic Systems". Chemical Reviews. 108 (11): 4332–4432. doi:10.1021/cr8002856. ISSN   0009-2665. PMID   19006397.
  12. 1 2 3 Anon. "Crystallisation in Confinement - A Biological Perspective". epsrc.ukri.org. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
  13. ↑ Wang, Yunwei; Zeng, Muling; Meldrum, Fiona C.; Christenson, Hugo K. (2017). "Using Confinement To Study the Crystallization Pathway of Calcium Carbonate". Crystal Growth & Design. 17 (12): 6787–6792. doi:10.1021/acs.cgd.7b01359. ISSN   1528-7483.
  14. ↑ "Understanding confinement effects on crystallisation using an imaging approach". leverhulme.ac.uk. The Leverhulme Trust. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
  15. ↑ "Research Project Grants 2017". leverhulme.ac.uk. The Leverhulme Trust. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
  16. ↑ Meldrum, Fiona C.; Kulak, Alex N.; Yue, Wenbo (2006). "Growth of single crystals in structured templates". Journal of Materials Chemistry. 16 (4): 408–416. doi:10.1039/B513802G. ISSN   1364-5501.
  17. ↑ Yashina, Alexandra; Meldrum, Fiona; Demello, Andrew (2012). "Calcium carbonate polymorph control using droplet-based microfluidics". Biomicrofluidics. 6 (2): 22001–2200110. doi:10.1063/1.3683162. PMC   3360709 . PMID   22655005.
  18. ↑ Loste, Eva; Meldrum, Fiona C. (2001). "Control of calcium carbonate morphology by transformation of an amorphous precursor in a constrained volume". Chemical Communications (10): 901–902. doi:10.1039/b101563j. ISSN   1359-7345.
  19. 1 2 "Home Page Materials Chemistry". chem.leeds.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
  20. ↑ Wucher, Barbara; Yue, Wenbo; Kulak, Alex N.; Meldrum, Fiona C. (2007). "Designer Crystals: Single Crystals with Complex Morphologies". Chemistry of Materials. 19 (5): 1111–1119. doi:10.1021/cm0620640. ISSN   0897-4756.
  21. 1 2 3 4 "Research Overview Materials Chemistry". chem.leeds.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
  22. ↑ Hanisch, Andreas; Yang, Pengcheng; Kulak, Alexander N.; Fielding, Lee A.; Meldrum, Fiona C.; Armes, Steven P. (2016-01-12). "Phosphonic Acid-Functionalized Diblock Copolymer Nano-Objects via Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly: Synthesis, Characterization, and Occlusion into Calcite Crystals". Macromolecules. 49 (1): 192–204. Bibcode:2016MaMol..49..192H. doi: 10.1021/acs.macromol.5b02212 . ISSN   0024-9297.
  23. ↑ Akwei, Kimberley. "Bio-Inspired Approaches to Functional Nanocomposites". physicalsciences.leeds.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
  24. ↑ Cantaert, Bram; Verch, Andreas; Kim, Yi-Yeoun; Ludwig, Henning; Paunov, Vesselin N.; Kröger, Roland; Meldrum, Fiona C. (2013). "Formation and Structure of Calcium Carbonate Thin Films and Nanofibers Precipitated in the Presence of Poly(Allylamine Hydrochloride) and Magnesium Ions". Chemistry of Materials. 25 (24): 4994–5003. doi:10.1021/cm403497g. ISSN   0897-4756. PMC   3903342 . PMID   24489438.
  25. ↑ Christenson, Hugo K.; Meldrum, Fiona C.; Campbell, James M. (2016). "Observing the formation of ice and organic crystals in active sites". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114 (5): 810–815. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1617717114 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   5293020 . PMID   27994140.
  26. ↑ Meldrum, Fiona C.; Robinson, Ian K.; Ashbrook, Sharon E.; Tang, Chiu C.; Harder, Ross J.; Holden, Mark A.; Kim, Yi-Yeoun; Kanwal, Nasima; Clark, Jesse N. (2018). "Visualization of the effect of additives on the nanostructures of individual bio-inspired calcite crystals". Chemical Science. 10 (4): 1176–1185. doi:10.1039/C8SC03733G. ISSN   2041-6539. PMC   6349071 . PMID   30774916.
  27. ↑ "Dr Fiona Meldrum". ccp14.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
  28. ↑ "Fiona Meldrum to lead MRS Bulletin Editorial Board" (PDF). MRS Bulletin. 2016. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
  29. ↑ "Speakers - 9th International Colloids Conference - Elsevier". elsevier.com. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
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